


A Little Off The Top, Sir?

by Anonymous



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: A grudgingly lets B do their hair; finds it surprisingly nice, Fluff, Hair brushing as a trust building exercise, Hair care/styling is tangled up with bittersweet memories, Haircuts, Multi, The Mane Event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 15:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30125130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: “No, Barnes, you don’t run your fingers through wet hair and call it done.  ’Fresh out of the shower’ is so last year’s look.”  Tony sighed.  “As much as it pains me to say this - will youpleaselet me sort your hair out?”orThe one where Tony decides Bucky needs a trim.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9
Collections: The Mane Event 2021





	A Little Off The Top, Sir?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Katherine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/gifts).



> Set in a nebulous, post-Avengers, pre-Ultron sand pit that I like to play in, where Tony Stark got to give the Avengers their own rooms in Stark Tower, Agent Coulson returned to life by some non-Tahitian method of resurrection, Bucky Barnes is part of the team and Fury is so done with all of them. 
> 
> Oh, and Jarvis is still Jarvis.

“What do you mean, you’ll cut his hair?”Steve looked between Bucky and Tony, utterly perplexed.“Tony, you aren’t serious.”

Tony was bicep deep in a big black box on wheels, digging around in whatever it was he kept in there.Steve had quickly learned not to ask questions about things like that, unless he had at least fifteen minutes spare for the answer.

“Of course I am.I’m always serious.”

“No.No, you are not.”Steve pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.Bucky sat quietly on a stool, eyes flicking around the laboratory, seeming to ignore the stupefying view of night time New York out of the big glass windows in favour of cataloguing everything else in the room.“You’re anything but.”

“A-ha!”Tony pulled out a slim, black leather wallet about the size of the average pencil case.“I knew this was in here somewhere.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.I’m not having Super Serum the Second there wandering around looking like an extra from the set of Lord of the Rings.”He unzipped the black pouch and laid it carefully down on the nearest bench.It held a number of black combs, a small hair brush and a gleaming pair of scissors.

Bucky’s eyes settled on the scissors.He blinked slowly, looked up at Steve, and then raised an eyebrow. 

“Thought we weren’t letting him use sharp objects yet,” Bucky said, softly.It was so much like his old self that Steve felt an increasingly familiar surge of affection and had to resist the urge to go and kiss that small smile off Bucky’s face.

Tony picked up the hair brush.

“How about we start with this?” he asked.Steve noticed that he didn’t actually move towards Bucky, but seemed to be waiting for an actual answer.

Bucky shrugged.

“It got done this morning.”

“No, Barnes, you don’t run your fingers through wet hair and call it done.’Fresh out of the shower’ is so last year’s look.”Tony sighed.“As much as it pains me to say this - will you _please_ let me sort your hair out?”

Bucky appeared to think it over for a moment, before slowly nodding.

“Can’t make it any worse, I guess.”

Tony snorted.

“Come on, I excel at everything I do.Trust me,” he said, then looked at Steve and winked. 

Another surge of affection, and Steve was old enough and wise enough to know which battles to fight and which to concede.

“I guess we can always give him a buzz cut if you mess up.”He sat on a stool at another bench.

“Mess up.”Tony snorted and moved to stand behind Bucky.“When have I ever messed up?”

“Jarvis?” Steve asked.

“Would you like it alphabetically or chronologically, sir?” Jarvis’ smooth voice made Tony roll his eyes.

“Be quiet, you,” he said, lifting the brush.“Now, let’s see, where to start.” 

Steve watched Bucky’s face carefully as Tony began to brush his hair.Bucky’s expression was calmly neutral to begin with, eyes still roaming the workshop.As Tony worked his careful way across Bucky’s head, however, Steve noticed a gradual change. 

Bucky’s eyes stopped their ceaseless moving.His gaze rested on the bench in front of him, and then, for the first time since Bucky had come back to them, since he’d looked at Steve with recognition in his eyes and a flicker of hope in his expression, Bucky _relaxed._

It was the tiniest thing.The minutest droop of his eyelids.A lessening of that laser focus.There was a corresponding easing of his shoulders, and Steve was half afraid to breathe, lest he break the spell.

Tony, it seemed, was equally aware of the reaction to his actions.Bucky’s hair was tangle free now, but Tony continued to brush, his strokes slowing, left hand following the brush across Bucky’s scalp, smoothing the hair after every pass.There was an odd expression on Tony’s face too, and Steve found himself watching them both, intently. 

Soft Bucky, Steve thought.And Tony was… wistful?Not how he would usually describe either of them, but Tony’s actions slowed even further.

“You okay?” Bucky asked, and Tony all but jumped.

“Yep, yep, fine.”Tony cleared his throat.“Right, that’s as good as it’s going get, time for the scissors.”

As Tony went to move away though, Bucky caught hold of his hand.Tony froze.

“Try again,” Bucky said, voice still soft.Tony swallowed.

“Doesn’t matter.”He shrugged, but Steve noticed he didn’t try to pull away.“A memory.”

Bucky didn’t blink.Tony’s expression morphed rapidly from wistful to dejected to forcedly jovial.The only time Steve had seen that combination of looks on Tony was when his parents were mentioned.

“Ancient history,” Tony said.“I’ll tell you later.Once I’ve fixed this.”He waved the hairbrush at Bucky’s head.

After a moment, Bucky nodded and released his hold. 

“Go for it,” he said. 

Steve had always known Bucky’s bravery was off the scale, but this was beyond anything he’d expected.He sat quietly and watched as Tony picked up the scissors and a large comb.

“Now, are we going for something pared back, a bit Jimmy Stewart?” Tony asked, standing to Bucky’s right.“Or more of an Elvis flick?”

Bucky huffed.

“As long as you don’t try for a Vera Lynn, I’m good.”

Steve really wanted to look away as Tony lifted the scissors, but he couldn’t.He was also very aware of how Bucky stayed relaxed as Tony brought the sharp, pointed steel up to where he had the comb lifting the hair away from Bucky’s ear.Even as the scissors’ blades closed with an oddly satisfying ‘snick’, Bucky didn’t move.

The hair fell to the polished concrete floor in curling wisps.Tony was talking, voice low, and Steve listened to the one sided discussion on the different types of metal suitable for making scissors with.As Tony talked, he cut.Movements slow and careful, studied in a way that Steve had never seen before.Almost… gentle.

“I’ve seen scissors with magnets in the handles before,” Tony said, moving around Bucky’s head, snip-snipping away.“Easy to hang on the wall, or a chest piece or an arm.”He absently patted Bucky’s metal shoulder.“But honestly, stainless steel with an HRC of at least sixty is the only way to go.”He was lifting the hair across the top of Bucky’s scalp now, hair flicking away with each deft cut.“The best steel for scissors in the world is Japanese.I mean, I could definitely make better if I tried, but, meh, time.”

Tony stopped, standing in front of Bucky with a furrowed brow.He leaned forward, doing something with the flick of hair over Bucky’s forehead.As Steve watched, Bucky parted his knees, placed his hands on Tony’s hips and drew him a fraction closer.

Tony’s breath caught and Steve all but heard the stutter behind the arc reactor. 

“Better control of the scissors if you’re not stretching,” Bucky said, voice low.

“I - you, yes.Absolutely.”Tony seemed to shake himself.“Right, just this front bit to even out.”

This thing between the three of them was so new, so fragile, that it was like Tony kept forgetting it was even a thing.Like he’d imagined it, or that it wasn’t allowed to exist outside Steve’s room, in case bringing it into the cold light of day (or the cold fluorescent lighting of the laboratory) would make it waver and vanish for good.Kind of like the way Bucky had been, back in Germany all those years ago - tentative, hopeful, yet worried they didn’t actually deserve this small slice of happiness inside all the crazy.And there was always plenty of crazy, both now and then.

“So, what do you think?”

Steve looked up, blinking himself back into the present. 

“I…”He felt his jaw drop.For one insane moment, he honestly thought that he had gone back in time, because Bucky looked like, well, _Bucky._ “How the hell did you do that?”

“It’s not my best work,” Tony said, looking critically at the hair all over the floor.“But it’ll do for now.At least he doesn’t look like a Wookie anymore.” 

Bucky lifted his hand, ran it round the back of his head and hummed, eyebrows rising.

“Well, feels a lot better,” he allowed.“Steve’s face says otherwise though.”

“No, no, it’s - amazing.”Steve got off his stool and moved to stand beside them, reaching out to card his fingers through the longer strands on the top of Bucky’s head.He didn’t miss the way that Bucky leaned into the touch, cat-like.“I’m - wow.Tony, where did you learn to cut hair?”

Tony shrugged.

“I didn’t.It’s just hair.If I can sculpt vibranium, I can trim a bit of keratin.”The engineer in Tony had little time for the artist in him, but Steve could see it all the same.

“Looks great, Buck,” Steve said.

“Guess it’ll stay out of my damn eyes.”Bucky glanced at Tony and Steve marvelled at the mischievous glint in his eyes.“A little less for you to pull, though.”

Tony’s jaw worked but no words came out.Steve grinned.

“He’s inventive, he’ll cope,” he said to Bucky. 

“I’m right here.”Tony’s tone wasn’t quite petulant, but close.Steve used the hand not still combing through Bucky’s hair to cup Tony’s chin, tilting his head up.

“So you are,” he murmured, brushing a kiss over pouting lips.“So you are.”


End file.
